New List Class – Release

The test_stack program was modified to include a new test_list() function that tests all the new list functions. The existing stack test functions test to make sure all the existing stack functions are still working correctly. The print_stack functions were renamed to print_list along with the arguments since these functions are really printing the underlying list. (Besides, it didn't make sense calling print_stack() from the test_list() function.) The ibcp_0.0.3-src.zip file has been uploaded at Sourceforge IBCP Project. The binaries for the test programs have now also been uploaded so compilation is not necessary.

One last minor fix was needed to the List class in the destructor. Upon scanning through the ANSI-ISO_C++.pdf document, I learned there is a distinction between using new to allocate a single item and new[] to allocate an array. You must use the corresponding delete and delete[] to deallocate the memory. For the List class, "new Element" is used throughout so there are no issues with that. However, the master element is allocated using new[]:

    master = (Element *)new char[sizeof(Element) – sizeof(T)];

This is used because the master element only contains previous and next element pointers, but no value. The statement above subtracts the size of the value (template generic type T) from the size of the element. Since delete[] needs to be used with new[], in the destructor, the delete master statement was changed to:

    delete[] (char *)master;

This gives delete[] the character pointer originally obtained from the new char[...] statement before is was type cast to an Element pointer.

Now it is time to get back to the Parser implementation.